Em portugues macarronico &; pidgin English
Sao sempre dois textos, um em ingles, e logo abaixo, a versao em portugues!
There are always two posts - one in Portuguese and right beneath it, the English version.

sexta-feira, agosto 12

From manaus to the Jungle's core

After a day visiting Manaus, where we saw Teatro Amazonas, the craft fair, and a little bit of the city, we were dead tired. We went to the hotel, the girls ordered the most expensive sandwich in town and we were ready to bed. All I wanted was a good night of sleep.

Too bad my plan backfired and I could not relax, could not sleep most of the time - I kept waking up all the time, afraid we had missed the caravan to the jungle lodge. The girls did not have a much better night. In the middle of the night, Lia took her bed sheets and went to lie down on the floor of the bathroom - only place she believed she could sleep in peace, without me and Anita around.

Thankfully I realized what she was doing and I pick her up and sent her straight back to her bed.

Poor Anita did not have a much better night, and she alternated between cold and hot - and to placate her suffering, she spent the night turning the a/c on and off, dragging us all to the same situation. Cold. Hot. cold. Hot. Cold...

At 6:30 we received our wake up call. It was time to have breakfast and head to the Amazon ... How exciting!

The breakfast room surprised me. Although the hotel is simple, the buffet was delightful. Assorted breads, ham, cheese, regional fruit juices, scrambled eggs, various fruits. All the best. At 7:20, with a full stomach, we were finally ready for our adventure!

A van came to pick us up and took us to a stinky port (smell of sewage, arght!). From there, we took a boat and headed to see" the meeting of the waters". That's where the waters of the Rio Negro meet the Amazon River and they run side b side for over 12 km. It was magical!

The waters of Rio Negro are dark, warmer and slower than the Amazon river, which is muddy, cold and far quicker. These differences make it an incredible sight.

After crossing the rivers, we were officially in the Amazon rainforest. Anita could not help herself: Why are there so many houses? Do people live here? Or are all these houses for weekend use? Oh, there's school? And the police station ... wow

Suddenly the amazement passed and she decided to be disappointed with the trip: We're not really, really in the Amazon Jungle. This is all populated. There are houses, there are people ...

At the port there was a pick up truck waiting for us. A quick math calculation made us realize it was going to be difficult - we were 5 guests + the driver. We would not fit in the car. At least not comfortably or safely ( one seat belt each) The option was simple: we could all get squashed, or wait for the next car. There was a Polish couple with us and they were very kind. The girl offered to sit on her boyfriend's lap and we travelled over an hour squashed in the same car - at least no one had to wait.

Anita was still complaining: Oh, no! This is not the jungle. I can see jandals, I can see cold stores. We are in the middle of civilization!

The pick up took us to a village, from where we took a ferry to cross the river. There is a bridge over the river, but the government hired a company to build it, but hired another company to build the headwaters of the bridge (both ends). In short, the bridge is ready but there is no way to pass through it, it is just a suspended structure, with no contact with the ground.

After crossing, we took BR 319 and went into the woods. The vegetation became more and more dense as we drove. Stilt houses adorned the way.

We drove another hour or so and we stumbled across another bridge without ends - the very same story. One company built the bridge and the other the heads. Until then, we will use the ferry ...

From there, we took a motorized canoe and went deeper into the jungle for another 20 minutes.

There, right in the middle of the jungle, we found Tupana - our hotel for the next 5 days.